How To: Headlight Restoration
- esfan
- 2011 Silver Contributor
- Posts: 1099
- Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 12:19 pm
- Location: San Diego, California
How To: Headlight Restoration
i just saw there are whole bunches of cars needs headlight restoration on this site, here's just my experience of how to do headlight restoration and i did it successfully on my car. i did remove all the yellow oxidized stuff away and got an almost brand new headlight cover FREE!!!
so we need several tools: 800 grid sandpaper, 2000 sandpaper (these numbers are critical, 1000 or 400 won't work or may damage the plastic. too high will have no effects at all.), Turtle Wax ICE liquid clay bar (this thing is a little bit expensive, but i cannot find anything sub, sometimes it's on sale in target about 10 usd, walmart has it about 13 bucks), Meguiar Plastix (or 3M polishing compound, turtle wax and polishing compound works ok but not that good).
1. took off the headlight cover, rinse it in any sinks at home until all the oxidazes are wet.
2. soak both 800 and 2000 sandpaper in the water for about 10 mins.
3. use the 800 sandpaper to sand the surface of the headlight cover evenly with the water rinsing. (BE AWARE: the headlight and the sandpaper have to be wet, otherwise damage will occur! ). sand the headlight in the horizontal direction.
4. until the headlight appears to be evenly white and foggy, stop sanding and rinse with water. wash away all the plastic powders left on the cover!
5. use the 2000 sandpaper to sand the surface of the cover evenly with the water rinsing (same as 800). BUT, sand the headlight surface in the VERTICAL direction instead! if u sand in horizontal again, it will cause scratches (that's why one of my headlight has to be resanded in order to get rid of them...)!
6. the headlight should appear more crystal after step 5. still foggy but even. rinse it with water in order to wash all the plastic powders away.
7. use the sponge provided by ICE clay bar, put about half the sponge liquid clay bar and polish the headlight in horizontal direction. press firmly and evenly.
8. after the polishing, the headlight should appear almost brand new crystal. if some small scratches appear on the cover, or the headlight is not clear enough, repeat step 7 but polish in vertical direction. if still not good enought, repeat 7 and 8. (always use liquid clay bar in line motion, DO NOT polish in circle motion! otherwise swirl marks will occur.)
9. put meguiar plastx onto the headlight and polish it in circle motion (same as waxing) or use a waxing machine which will result better. after it hazed, remove it by microfiber cloths or cotton cloths fast or use the machine to wax off it. your headlight should appear brand new now!!!
HEADLIGHT RESTORATION KITS ON THE MARKET DO NOT WORK OUT INDIVIDUALLY! DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THEM!!!
so we need several tools: 800 grid sandpaper, 2000 sandpaper (these numbers are critical, 1000 or 400 won't work or may damage the plastic. too high will have no effects at all.), Turtle Wax ICE liquid clay bar (this thing is a little bit expensive, but i cannot find anything sub, sometimes it's on sale in target about 10 usd, walmart has it about 13 bucks), Meguiar Plastix (or 3M polishing compound, turtle wax and polishing compound works ok but not that good).
1. took off the headlight cover, rinse it in any sinks at home until all the oxidazes are wet.
2. soak both 800 and 2000 sandpaper in the water for about 10 mins.
3. use the 800 sandpaper to sand the surface of the headlight cover evenly with the water rinsing. (BE AWARE: the headlight and the sandpaper have to be wet, otherwise damage will occur! ). sand the headlight in the horizontal direction.
4. until the headlight appears to be evenly white and foggy, stop sanding and rinse with water. wash away all the plastic powders left on the cover!
5. use the 2000 sandpaper to sand the surface of the cover evenly with the water rinsing (same as 800). BUT, sand the headlight surface in the VERTICAL direction instead! if u sand in horizontal again, it will cause scratches (that's why one of my headlight has to be resanded in order to get rid of them...)!
6. the headlight should appear more crystal after step 5. still foggy but even. rinse it with water in order to wash all the plastic powders away.
7. use the sponge provided by ICE clay bar, put about half the sponge liquid clay bar and polish the headlight in horizontal direction. press firmly and evenly.
8. after the polishing, the headlight should appear almost brand new crystal. if some small scratches appear on the cover, or the headlight is not clear enough, repeat step 7 but polish in vertical direction. if still not good enought, repeat 7 and 8. (always use liquid clay bar in line motion, DO NOT polish in circle motion! otherwise swirl marks will occur.)
9. put meguiar plastx onto the headlight and polish it in circle motion (same as waxing) or use a waxing machine which will result better. after it hazed, remove it by microfiber cloths or cotton cloths fast or use the machine to wax off it. your headlight should appear brand new now!!!
HEADLIGHT RESTORATION KITS ON THE MARKET DO NOT WORK OUT INDIVIDUALLY! DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THEM!!!
Last edited by esfan on Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:08 am, edited 8 times in total.
Fan
2000 Dodge Neon ES
Official "I'm Going to Drive My Neon till it Dies" Club #52
2000 Dodge Neon ES
Official "I'm Going to Drive My Neon till it Dies" Club #52
- lilnicko11
- 2011 Silver Contributor
- Posts: 2473
- Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2008 8:40 am
- Location: Upstate NY
instead of taking out the whole headlight out of your car. just use a water bottle sprayer and be careful not to scratch your paint while sanding........
2002 NEON ACR
2004 NEON SRT4
Official "I'm Going to Drive My Neon till it Dies" Club Member #50
LINK:
CARLISLE 2010 VIDEOS
2004 NEON SRT4
Official "I'm Going to Drive My Neon till it Dies" Club Member #50
LINK:
CARLISLE 2010 VIDEOS
- esfan
- 2011 Silver Contributor
- Posts: 1099
- Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 12:19 pm
- Location: San Diego, California
orbital buffer helps a lot actually. but if you put enough effort...(e.g. have a steak dinner and a lot of cheese with high calorie before then try to lose those fat by working on the headlight), you will get a nice result also...
not recommend for people on diet...
not recommend for people on diet...
advise: one thing about doing those on the car is that if you took off the headlight, you can actually put it into the sink and wet sanding with a lot of water rinsing. otherwise you have to have someone helping pouring water onto it.lilnicko11 wrote:instead of taking out the whole headlight out of your car. just use a water bottle sprayer and be careful not to scratch your paint while sanding........
Fan
2000 Dodge Neon ES
Official "I'm Going to Drive My Neon till it Dies" Club #52
2000 Dodge Neon ES
Official "I'm Going to Drive My Neon till it Dies" Club #52
ive always sprayed ppg clearcoat on afterwards keeps em clear!
My AIM Username is sullivan_is_back@hotmail.com (yes @hotmail.com)
I know someone else who does this.... he says IT WORKS..... and the headlamps stay clear.sullivan wrote:ive always sprayed ppg clearcoat on afterwards keeps em clear!
- Nick
-1998 2-dr SOHC MTX= 57mm TB; Maddog STS
-2000 Ply.LX w/MTX = Maddog STS; CAI; 2.5 exh.; 60mm T/B
-2001 ATX w/Syked PCM + Magnum header
-2001 ACR w/SRT T/B bored out to 55mm
Official "I'm Going to Drive My Neon till it Dies" Club #000009
-2000 Ply.LX w/MTX = Maddog STS; CAI; 2.5 exh.; 60mm T/B
-2001 ATX w/Syked PCM + Magnum header
-2001 ACR w/SRT T/B bored out to 55mm
Official "I'm Going to Drive My Neon till it Dies" Club #000009
-
- Junior Admin
- Posts: 20306
- Joined: Thu May 03, 2007 12:14 pm
- Location: Ashland Ohio
Now that's a cork brick!
Clear paint has actually held up the best for me. I used Duplicolor's wheel paint. Not really on the neon, but the Sundance, as they were re yellowing after less than a month; after sanding and polishing each time. (18 years old) It's been 4 months, and winter roads, and they are still clear.
Clear paint has actually held up the best for me. I used Duplicolor's wheel paint. Not really on the neon, but the Sundance, as they were re yellowing after less than a month; after sanding and polishing each time. (18 years old) It's been 4 months, and winter roads, and they are still clear.
Bill
1999 neon coupe 2.4 swap
2021 Forester
2000 Neon MTX swap with '02 R/T PCMOlha Koba, a psychologist in Kyiv, said that “anger and hate in this situation is a normal reaction and important to validate.” But it is important to channel it into something useful, she said, such as making incendiary bombs out of empty bottles.
1999 neon coupe 2.4 swap
2021 Forester
headlight restoration
I did this with a rag, water, Kit Scratch out, and a bit of elbow grease. Finished the polishing with 3M scratch remover.
To Conquer or to Die
- Xployted77
- 2GN Member
- Posts: 83
- Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2012 11:04 am
- Location: Spring Hill, Fl
I used turtle wax resto kit and it worked amazing. Check out the before and after pics. And yes i resed an old topic...
Before
After
At night
This is what I used
Cost me $11 and it even worked great on the 3rd brake light and tail lights as well.
Before
After
At night
This is what I used
Cost me $11 and it even worked great on the 3rd brake light and tail lights as well.
------------------
01 Plymouth Neon
Project Xployted-In Progress
viewtopic.php?t=61264
-----------
Official "I'm Going to Drive My Neon till it Dies" Club #201
01 Plymouth Neon
Project Xployted-In Progress
viewtopic.php?t=61264
-----------
Official "I'm Going to Drive My Neon till it Dies" Club #201